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THe PenPal Schools BLOG

Wednesday was "Austin Reads Aloud Day" in our fair city. The day recognized local non-profit Bookspring and their achievement in delivering one million books (and counting!) to children in Greater Austin. To celebrate schools across the city hosted "celebrity readers." These readers shared their favorite children’s books along with their love of reading.

Back by popular demand is another installment of Meet the PenPals! It's awesome to think about all the pen pals out there, learning and sharing together. Since our founder Joe Troyen (aka Mr. PenPal) founded PenPal Schools we've grown to a community of over 70,000 learners. We'll be profiling as many of these pen pal's as possible so we can get to know each other better, beginning with the team here at PenPal Schools headquarters! This week we chatted with Mark, a passionate teacher who leads the creation of our courses. Let's meet Mark!

We would like to celebrate the holiday by taking a look into some traditional clothing across the world! Each country has various traditional clothing, some of which are specific to certain regions. While many traditional clothes across the world are no longer worn on a daily basis (today it may be symbolic and worn during certain festivals or celebrations, for example), traditional clothing is highly representative of a country’s history, climate, customs and the diverse ethnic groups who inhabit them. ​

We're excited to announce that PenPal Schools is partnering with South African publisher Via Afrika on a new course to help students understand the struggles people have overcome against discrimination and prejudice. Over six-weeks the course, titled Walking To Freedom, will introduce students to the historic challenges posed by prejudice, discrimination and racism. Together with a pen pal from another part of the world, students will learn about civic leaders and social activists who have dedicated their lives to freedom, justice, and equality.

Last week Mr. PenPal (our founder Joe Troyen) attended the Clinton Global Initiative's 2015 Annual Meeting in New York City. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) “convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.” The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation holds the event as part of their mission to “unlock human potential (through) the power of creative collaboration.” Business, nonprofit, and government leaders take part by making “Commitments to Action.” These commitments are plans "for addressing a significant global challenge.” (CGI)

Exciting things are happening here at the PenPal Schools headquarters! Fall is in the air-- which in Texas pretty much means that the temperature drops below 90 °F. School is back in session and many of you have been signing up for new classrooms (welcome new PenPals!). We’ve been working on new courses like Decision 2016 and a few others (stay tuned for more news on those!).​As we welcome more new PenPals everyday we thought we’d start a series to introduce the PenPal Schools team. This week is a special one as its our founder Joe Troyen’s birthday! Let’s learn together and spend a few minutes getting to know Joe: